Washington
D.C., March 7, 2007- The declassified
documents introduced as evidence during the trial of Vice President
Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby,
provide an almost unprecedented window into Mr. Cheney's own
role as the most powerful vice president in history, according
to National Security Archive director Tom Blanton this morning
on NPR's Morning Edition.

Talking with NPR's anchor Steve Inskeep, Blanton annotated
a series of trial exhibits including several in Mr. Cheney's
own handwriting, ranging from his scribbles on a New York
Times op-ed piece critical of the administration, to his
tasking of the White House press operation to defend Libby against
charges of leaking classified information.

On the latter document, the Vice President wrote "Not
going to protect one staffer + sacrifice the guy the Pres
that was asked to put his neck in the meat grinder because of
the incompetence of others." Blanton noted that the staffer
to be protected was Karl Rove, who remains President Bush's
senior political advisor, and "the guy" was Scooter
Libby - now convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice.
The document shows that Mr. Cheney's first instinct had been
to say that the President had asked Libby to put his neck out,
but then Cheney crossed that out and reverted to the passive
voice - in fact, it was Cheney who tasked Libby with going to
the press to defend the administration on this point.

Documents
Introduced as Evidence
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